Here are this week’s Accolades, a roundup of some of the honors and accomplishments of College of Medicine and UAMS faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently!
Trial Results in JAMA
Congratulations to Dr. Erika Petersen, Professor of Neurosurgery, and colleagues on the publication in JAMA Neurology this week of the results from a national clinical trial that she led into a unique treatment for painful diabetic neuropathy. The randomized clinical trial assessed high-frequency (10-kHz) spinal cord stimulation for patients with the painful diabetic foot condition and found significant benefit from the treatment for patients who had inadequate pain relief from other best-available medical treatments. The article is featured on the journal’s home page, and a JL Learning podcast features an interview with Dr. Petersen. Her UAMS co-authors included Chronic Pain Division Director Dr. Johnathan Goree and former faculty members Dr. Christopher Paul and Dr. Heejung Choi.
Pancreatic Insights in JAMA
Dr. Michail Mavros, Assistant Professor of Surgery, is the lead author on an important new paper in JAMA Surgery, “Clinical Trials of Systemic Chemotherapy for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer.” Dr. Mavros worked with surgical and medical oncologists at some of the leading institutions in the United States and Canada to critically evaluate all randomized clinical trials that investigated neoadjuvant (before surgery) and adjuvant (after surgery) chemotherapy treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) that was resectable (able to be removed by surgery). Well done.
Research Alliance Honorees
The Arkansas Research Alliance has named Professor and Internal Medicine Chair Dr. Edward T.H. Yeh an ARA Scholar and Dr. Alan Tackett, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Deputy Director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, as an ARA Fellow. The ARA Scholars program helps recruit and support world-class researchers to Arkansas universities, and the ARA Fellows program recognizes research leaders currently working at one of the state’s five research campuses. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom. Congratulations to both of these outstanding researchers and leaders.
International Teaching
Dr. Surjith Vattoth, Associate Professor of Radiology in the Division of Neuroradiology, shared his expertise as an invited course faculty member for the multi-module “European Course in Head & Neck Neuroradiology” conducted by the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR). Dr. Vattoth provided a lecture and workshops on temporal bone imaging last November, and he participated in the international course again last week, delivering a lecture and workshops on the added value of MRI and CT to assess thyroid and parathyroid disease.
National Honors
Congratulations to fourth-year Psychiatry resident Dr. Abigail Richison on two national honors. She has been selected for the highly competitive American Psychiatric Association’s Research Colloquium for Junior Psychiatric Investigators, where she will receive guidance from top researchers and academics and present on a research project, “A survey of providers’ perceptions and comfort with medical cannabis.” Dr. Richison also has been selected for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s REACH (Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction through Culturally Informed Healthcare) program through Yale University and SAMHSA. She will attend an intensive training course at Yale and receive up to $104,000 in funding for a fellowship position in addiction psychiatry that she will complete at Vanderbilt University Medical Center following her residency graduation in July.
Mentors Matter
I received the good news in the accolade above from Dr. Richison’s proud mentor, Dr. Jessica Coker, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology. And I was doubly pleased to hear what Dr. Richison later wrote to Psychiatry Chair and Psychiatric Research Institute Director Dr. G. Richard Smith. “Dr. Coker has been an amazing mentor, and I would not have received these awards without her help,” Dr. Richison wrote. “She played a crucial role in my career development, and I am so grateful to be able to call her a mentor.” Dr. Richison also praised Dr. Smith’s leadership, the exceptional attending physicians in PRI, and the support she has received from the Psychiatry Residency Program, which is directed by Dr. Ben Guise.
Scholarly Collaborations
The Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery’s scholarly collaborations among faculty, residents and medical students continue to result in excellent publications. Third-year medical student Merit Turner’s article, “Impact of Oral Steroids on Tonsillectomy Post-Operative Complications and Pain,” was published in Ear, Nose, and Throat. She completed the project with Research Fellow Dr. J. Reed Gardner and Professor Dr. Gresham Richter. Meanwhile, fourth-year resident Dr. Donald Vickers and COM senior Courtney Hunter had their article “Perioperative Indicators of Prognosis in Acute Invasive Fungal Sinusitis” published in Oto-Open. Their project was conducted with Dr. Gardner and Associate Professor Dr. Alissa Kanaan. And second-year resident Dr. Anvesh Kompelli’s article “Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia and Aspirin Exacerbated Respiratory Disease: A Case Report” was accepted for publication in Oto-Open. Dr. Kompelli worked on the project with Dr. Gardner and Dr. Kanaan. Congratulations to all.
Global Education
A shout-out to the Department of Radiology, which has been designated as a member and chapter of the non-profit organization Health for the World (H4TW). The organization is devoted to disseminating health education worldwide to help stop preventable medical conditions. Faculty and residents in Radiology will contribute lectures to a virtual library of educational materials that will be available in multiple languages for health care professionals and medical trainees in other countries. The chapter will also collaborate with other clinical departments on educational projects highlighting the diverse expertise at UAMS. Read more about the new H4TW chapter here.
Above & Beyond
Finally this week, very special thanks to the third- and fourth-year medical students who volunteered for a recent student-led workshop to help M1 and M2 students learn how to do physical exams. The pandemic has prevented first- and second-year students from having many of the opportunities for in-person, hands-on learning that our students ordinarily have prior to starting their third-year clinical rotations.
The Internal Medicine Interest Group, led by Muhammad Abu-Rmaileh, (President), Zain Alfanek (Vice President) and Lillie Pitts (Secretary), reached out to M4s and M3s to help with the workshop, which was held in the Simulation Center and followed COVID safety guidelines. More than 20 juniors and seniors taught physical exam skills to 75 M1s and M2s, and the group hopes to provide another workshop soon.
“I was honored that so many M3 and M4 students took time from their busy schedules to help out,” said Muhammad. “Some of the M3s had their NBME finals coming up and still wanted to help. We also could not have done this without Sherry Johnson and the team in the SIM Center.”
Volunteers included Justin Klucher, Skye Heckman, Gideon Singleton, Courtney Hunter, Aaron Henry, Allyson Walker, Garrett Bethel, Neil Simmons, Nicole Thomas, Cody Thompson, Jackson Weaver, Anna Blackshare, Gray Orman, Braxton Anderson, Brandon Leding, Morgan Howells, Sydney Roper and Ryan Coleman.